Adventures of Craig and Charlie

As I noted in a March 10^th blog entitled “A Conspiracy?”, I have long been fascinated about the mysterious origins of the New Testament of the Holy Bible.

I am an atheist now but was once a card-carrying “born again” Christian. I believe that most of the morality promoted by the major religions, including Christianity, is positive stuff. And, as far as any religion being a source of hope and generating a feeling of positivity is concerned, I’m all in favor of that. My wife is a Catholic, came from a family of true believers, attended a convent, and is a model human being. To the extent that her religion has had a positive impact on her life and that of others, I cannot argue.

People who live by the “Golden Rule”, whether they be religious or not, are the kind of folk that I want to associate with. I try to adhere to it as best I can because it’s the right thing, not because I’m trying to curry a god’s favor.

The origins of all religions are shrouded in mystery, and all religions have a mythical backstory. That would include fantastic claims like virginal births, folks conversing directly with God, lots of miracles being performed, holy men prophesying future events, main characters dying but being resurrected from the dead, and such. The Holy Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, is but one religious tome that includes a litany of mythical provenance, if one can call it that.

If Moses could part the Red Sea with his staff, couldn’t Paul Bunyan plow the Grand Canyon with the help of his blue ox “Babe”? We are entertained but scoff at the latter myth, but Jews and many fundamental Christians believe wholeheartedly in the Moses story. Why? Because they want to believe.

I don’t need to believe in religious myths, but I have always been very interested in where they came from and why.  Luckily, I love to read and there are quite a few scholars who have been investigating these religious back stories ever since the Reformation.

Research into the origins of the New Testament has been prolific in the past few decades. It is a difficult field of study, as most of the literature from the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd centuries no longer exists, including the original Gospels. This absence of source data is not by accident: the Catholic Church oversaw things in Europe for 1,200 years or so and were famous for “disappearing” literature that cast doubt on evolving Christian dogma. What is left of the 1^st through 3^rd century literature for researchers to sift through is mainly copies of copies of copies. And, of course, with every manual copy (by a scribe or monk), there were opportunities to make errors in translation, make modifications, or insert new material that pleased the Church.

In other words, very few “breadcrumbs” were left for modern Christians or biblical scholars to follow. Accordingly, the Church has invented convenient “traditions” to fill in the blanks, which the faithful are expected to believe… as an expression of their faith.

I’ve recently read four books by modern scholars who have put a lot of energy into examining the origins of Christianity and the New Testament. These writers are not theologians, apologists, or even religious scholars but, rather, historians. Thus, they are attempting to take the available factual data and theorize how and why a new religion was created 2,000 years ago.

The books that I’ve been reading are as follows:

          Caesar’s Messiah by Joseph Atwill, published in 2005

          On the Historicity of Jesus by Richard Carrier (2014)

          Creating Christ by James Valliant and Warren Fahy (2018)

          Creating Christianity by Henry Davis (2020)

As any religious scholar will admit, no one knows who wrote the books of the New Testament. In fact, the faceless writers took pains to hide their identities, but inserted “clues” here and there to tease the reader. The Gospel writers gave the impression that the stories and quotes from Jesus were factual even though modern religious scholars concede that the Gospels were written anywhere from 40 to 120 years after the supposed actual events portrayed. Thus, every verbatim quote of Jesus Christ in the Gospels was invented by clever writers who never could have met the man… if he even existed.

On the Historicity of Jesus by Richard Carrier explores this topic in some detail. His conclusion is that the fellow that Christians worship (the one described in the Gospels) probably didn’t actually exist but was an invented man-god. Of course, that begs the question, “Why was he invented?”

The other three books (Caesar’s Messiah, Creating Christ, and Creating Christianity) theorize that the Christian religion was invented out of whole cloth under the auspices of the Roman Empire, specifically at the direction of the Flavian emperors Vespasian and Titus in the late 1^st century.

In those books, the common theme is that the objective was to pacify Roman subjects, particularly zealous Jews, who had been rebelling against the Empire. As the authors point out, in detail, a close reading of the books of the New Testament reveals: (1) Even though the Jesus character is a Jewish rabbi, his main effort seems to be antisemitic, i.e. against the Jewish religious establishment in Palestine; (2) Jesus’ message is one of pacifism, submission, and cooperation with Roman authority rather than the intransigence and militarism of 1^st century Jews; and, (3) Within the New Testament, all stories involving Rome, its leaders, and even Roman soldiers in Palestine reflect positively on the Empire.

It is known that the Gospels were written after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 73 A.D. by Titus’ Roman army. Thus, it was possible for Gospel writers to have their Jesus character prophesying the same catastrophe some 40 years earlier, blaming the zealous Jews for the troubles (starvation, death, slavery) they would have to endure.

During the Vietnam War, there was a famous quote from a U.S. Army officer who noted that, “We had to destroy the village to save it.” This is basically the intent of the New Testament: destroy militant Judaism so it can be replaced by a pacifistic religion acceptable to the Roman Empire. The Messiah (or savior) that the Jewish people had long prayed for, to deliver them from their oppressors, ironically turned out to be the Flavian emperors who rescued the Jews from their zealous, militaristic leaders.

How do we know that the Flavians were involved in the creation of the New Testament?

For one thing, a new religion was seemingly created under the noses of Roman officials. This couldn’t happen without the sanction of the Flavian emperors because religious practices were controlled by the political establishment. Secondly, Hellenized Jews (the Herod and Alexander families from the Middle East who had family connections with the Flavians) and captured ex-Pharisee/Flavian historian Jospeh bar Mathias (i.e. Flavius Josephus) were present at the Roman court, providing extensive knowledge of the Jewish religion. Thirdly, the production of literature was costly, something only the wealthy or the government could afford. The idea that common folk, following a wandering, itinerant preacher, could produce such literature for mass consumption in the 1^st through 3^rd centuries, without Roman government help or permission, is preposterous.

Author Henry Davis, in Creating Christianity, postulates that a very influential Roman family, kingmakers of a sort with the last name of Piso, were involved in the scheme to producethe new “Christian” religion. This family had the wealth, the connections with the Flavians, and the motivation (i.e. pacified Roman subjects were good for business and stability throughout the Empire) to orchestrate the production of the New Testament literature.

To me, Davis seems to be overreaching in his identification of the Piso family as the driving force behind the new religion. Also, he matter-of-factly identifies several historical characters (famous 1^st century writers) as participants in developing the mythology of Jesus, his disciples, the Apostle Paul, and so forth. I don’t believe Mr. Davis has enough proof to claim what he does, but his basic premise seems plausible, as good as any I’ve heard.

The fact that Christianity developed in plain sight of the Flavian emperors and likely at their behest is underscored by the fact that many of the earliest Christian leaders had connections with the Empire.

In fact, possibly the first real Pope (excluding the disciple Peter, who was likely mythical) was Titus Flavius Clemens (St. Clement of Rome), who was a cousin of emperors Titus and Domitian. The famous Catacombs of Domatilla in Rome, the earliest burial sites of known Christians, was dug on property owned by 1^st century noblewoman Flavia Domatilla, granddaughter of Emperor Vespasian and wife of St. Clement of Rome. Vespasian’s official court historian, Flavius Josephus, writing at the exact same time as Apostle Paul’s New Testament epistles emerged, reveals in his biography stories that match Paul’s adventures almost to a tee. Epaphroditus, a freedman and later imperial secretary to Emperor Nero, appears to have had the job as Secretary of Letters under Vespasian and Titus at the Roman court. He is possibly the same fellow Epaphroditus who is identified as a friend of the (mythical) Apostle Paul in one of his epistles and is now revered by the Church as St. Epaphroditus. One historian, Robert Eisenman, has argued that a group around the Flavians, possibly led by Epaphroditus, likely produced the Gospel literature itself. Domitian, the last of the Flavian emperors, officially distanced his regime from Christianity and had Epaphroditus executed.

There are many more intriguing connections like this, but I think you get the point: the early Flavian emperors were neck-deep involved in creating the religion that would cooperate with the Roman aristocracy and ensure Pax Romana (the “Roman peace”).

The major impediment to the peace that Rome craved was zealous Judaism. There were an estimated 8 million Jews within the Empire in the 1^st century. Many of those Jews in Palestine were eliminated or driven into slavery by the Romans by 73 A.D., but that still left millions of Jews that represented a problem for Rome.

The psy-ops campaign devised by the Flavians to rejigger militant Jews into compliant Jews (i.e. Christians) was probably the most effective propaganda campaign in world history.

Much credit goes to those Flavian schemers.

My friend and neighbor John Kasberg and I hiked to Observation Point in Zion National Park yesterday.

John is the President of the Desert Fossils Hiking Club here in Mesquite, Nevada. Although he is a tour guide all over the Southwest U.S., and has hiked just about everything worth experiencing within a 100-mile radius of our neighborhood, he had never done Observation Point. So, we needed to check that one off his Bucket List.

Zion is probably my favorite National Park, with spectacular sheer cliffs reaching well over 1,000 feet, lots of red and white sandstone, the Virgin River running through the valley, and plenty of wonderful sights to enjoy. It is one of the most visited and beloved National Parks in America. To me, it is Yosemite without the waterfalls.

The three “must do” hikes in Zion are: (1) the Narrows; (2) Angel’s Landing; and, (3) Observation Point.

The Narrows is a spectacular slot canyon that is world famous for it’s beauty.

Angel’s Landing is considered by many to be the most dangerous hike in the United States, due to some ledges one must traverse with 1,000 foot drop-offs.

Observation Point is high above most everything else (it is 700 feet above Angel’s Landing), giving the hiker a commanding view of the Zion Valley.

I had previously done all three before yesterday.

It used to be that Observation Point could be reached via a very steep trail with lots of switchbacks carved into a 1,500 escarpment. This is the way I’d hiked it about 8 years ago. However, a large rock slide in 2021 wiped out that trail (below rust-colored rock across the canyon– see photo)

Therefore, the only way to access Observation Point nowadays is to exit Zion National Park on the east, head up to a mountain resort called Zion Ponderosa, and pick up a trail a couple of miles away that leads west into the National Park. The hike to Observation Point is about 3-1/2 miles one-way from the trailhead.

The Zion Ponderosa shuttle bus dropped us off about ½ mile from the trailhead, and we hiked overland through Juniper and scrub oak forests to the Point, probably taking us 1-1/2 hours. The views were spectacular, as usual, and John was overwhelmed by the beauty. We ate some bagged lunch there and chilled for maybe 30 minutes.

On the return trip, we decided to go down the old route marked “Trail closed ahead” so that John could see the traditional trail up the steep sandstone cliffs. We went about a half-mile or so down that trail where we encountered the steep switchbacks and could see (across the canyon) the trail areas that had been wiped out by the rockfalls. It is likely, due to the great expense, that the old/standard way of accessing Observation Point from the valley below is lost forever.

It is a shame, but serious hikers can still do the hike the way we did it yesterday. It’s a longer hike (we probably did around 9 miles total), but the “payoff” was wonderful, as we got birds-eye views of several spectacular canyons within the park.

John and I are planning to hike The Narrows in the Fall, when tourist season abates and the Zion River is running at low volume. I’ve done the hike before (John hasn’t) and it is probably the prettiest hike in America.

We’re a bit sore today but, hey, “No pain, no gain!”

(BTW, I lost two pounds yesterday, which brings my total weight lost since December 1st to 22 pounds!)

I’m old and cranky like most 76-year-old guys: lots of things annoy me.

Today, I had to send to “Spam” 261 comments to my blog site. None of the comments had anything to do with my blog. Instead, they were phishing attempts to click on websites purveying porn, sales advice for my company (which I do not have!), and ads for computer geeks who can improve my website. I spent about a half-hour cleaning up my website mail. I know, I’m retired and have plenty of time on my hands, but this is an invasion of my privacy… I protest!

Cake in the face! This odd behavior at fancy wedding receptions (that are videoed and disseminated via the Web) bugs me. Who came up with the idea that this bad behavior belongs in a wedding? It is disrespectful of the occasion and disrespectful of the newlyweds. Respect is probably the most important ingredient in a successful marriage. So, why would anyone want to start off a holy union with such a low-class stunt? And people wonder why marriages fail so often these days!!

Disgraced/retired Army General Michael Flynn, sucking up to an audience of right-wing Christian televangelists and their dupes, made the statement that “prayer” is the most powerful weapon that a country possesses. That’s right: when a terrorist organization rains down holy hell on your country, forget the military response and… start praying! Yeah, that worked out really well for the Jews when the Nazis came a callin’! To my knowledge, there has never been any evidence (you know, fact-based stuff) that demonstrates that prayer accomplishes anything other than giving hope to the true-believer. As some wag once said, “Religion is the opium of the masses.”

I’ve been a humanitarian this past week, trying to help out my elderly (she’s as old as Biden) socialize her new puppy. I take the dog on morning walks with one of my dogs. “William” is a 7-month-old miniature sheep dog of some sort and is a handful. He’s got an urge to chase cars and has slipped his collar and run into the street a few times. I am getting old (almost as old as Biden) and I refuse to chase a dog 100 yards down a street, dodging cars. The little asshole has broken his leash twice under my watch, and I’m getting annoyed. His latest leash, which Sharon bought two days ago, has been half-chewed up by the little devil (Is she storing in on the ground?), so we’re about one good pull from another chase down a busy thoroughfare. As my former boss used to remind me, “No good deed goes unpunished!”

If our disgraced ex-President has done nothing else beneficial in the past couple of years or so, he has at least demonstrated to every American that the old saw about two tiers of justice in our country (one for the rich, and another for the poor) is, sadly, one thousand percent correct. Poor folks get indicted (too often for crimes that they did not commit), frog-marched through the courts, and sentenced to harsh punishment… often because they cannot afford qualified counsel. Rich people have armies of lawyers and use every device available to get the charges thrown out, confuse the jury, delay justice, and appeal judicial rulings or convictions ad infinitum, so that justice seemingly never happens. It is almost like the Founding Fathers intended it to work this way. Why?

There was a solar eclipse yesterday. Big whoopee, these things happen every so often. I don’t understand why some folks get so excited about naturally occurring events like this. And, of course, odd happenings like this bring out the conspiracy nutjobs and the self-annointed spokespeople for God, who proclaim that the event is a message from The Boss that He’s pissed off at… lesbians, liberals, teachers, non-Christians, pencil-necked geeks, Democrats, etc. Remember the catastrophic predictions when the year 2000 was approaching: “Repent, the End is Near!” There was a minor earthquake last week in New York: predictably, some Bible-thumper declared that it was a message from God who is angry as Hell about illegal immigration or something. (Hey, someone tell God about the Republicans in Congress who recently torpedoed a bi-partisan bill that would have addressed the immigration problem!)

Speaking of natural stuff, I’ve got an issue with Spring… particularly here in the desert. We go most of the year with fairly sparse vegetation, given the sparsity of water and the Summer heat. It gets cold in the Winter and every living thing hunkers down to survive. Then, Spring arrives, things start to thaw out, and plants begin to put out flowers. Hooray for that!!

Unfortunately, though, those blooms are fleeting, only lasting a couple of days. What a tease that is, God! Why can’t those beautiful blooms last awhile? What did we do to offend Thee?

“Shrinkflation” sucks. Smaller portions for the same or higher price. There ought to be a law against this travesty. I think it is a conspiracy of the business elites who have joined together to enact punishment on society for the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on their enterprises. Many businesses failed, lots of folks lost their jobs, mucho downsizing happened, we all suffered. The companies that survived, but whose bottom line was savaged, are now wreaking revenge: the public is going to pay for this travesty through shrinkflation. It seems like every trip to the supermarket costs me $100 no matter what I purchase. I can recall filling my shopping cart with goods for $100. Now, it’s one bag featuring shrunk packages, like a “Family-sized” Kellogg’s Special K cereal box that, when opened, contains a plastic bag half-filled with cereal. The “per ounce” cost of everything has doubled in the past few years. How did this happen, as inflation hasn’t increased that much? “Stick it to ‘em!”, seems to be the corporate party line.

What in the fuck is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. up to? He is theoretically running for President in 2024 on some bullshit “American Values” ticket.

The guy has no chance of being elected or even winning one electoral vote, as he is a conspiracy nut who his own famous family has disowned. A few days ago, a Kennedy campaign official declared that their goal was to deny Joe Biden a victory. In other words, a “spoiler” campaign that would help Donald Trump regain the White House. Gee, I’ve got to believe that JFK and his brother RFK are turning over in their graves. I liked JFK and RFK, but “Junior” has evidently been smoking too much weed lately. He’s making himself look like a narcissistic fool, pissed off because he can’t get the Democratic nomination.

The world is going to hell and I’m sick and tired of it.

So… what’s for dinner?

I watched a YouTube video awhile back of a mixed-4×400 meter relay in a recent track and field championship where the difference between male and female athletes was demonstrated.

A “mixed” event means that the four-person team is half men and half women. Each competitor runs 400 meters (once around a track). In this race, one team used two of their men and one of their women on the first three legs of the race and built up an enormous lead on the other seven teams. They finished the race with a woman, a very good 400-meter runner, who inherited a 40-meter lead over the nearest competitor and perhaps a 60-meter lead over the other runners.

The other 7 teams finished with male runners… who all eventually passed the woman runner in those final 400 meters. She gave it all she had but came in dead last.

The moral of the story: the men runners were bigger and stronger.

Nothing new here. With everything else being equal (ability, training, drive), a championship-level female runner will be about 10 percent slower than her male counterpart. It’s biology, having to do with size and muscle mass.

I’ve recently seen some YouTube videos concerning the WNBA, which is the women’s professional basketball league in the United States. The league has been in existence for 27 seasons and showcases the best 144 women players on 12 teams. Each team plays a 40-game schedule.

I played varsity basketball in high school, so I know the game a bit. I used to follow the NBA (the men’s professional league) to some degree; I was/am a Laker fan. However, I’ve only attended a couple of NBA games in my life, and I watch very little basketball on TV anymore. Why? Because the men’s professional game has morphed from pure basketball into “entertainment”. Fundamentals (like passing, setting screens, getting position for rebounds, playing defense, involving all five players in the offense, etc.) have been replaced by flashy entertainment, including palming the ball, traveling, half-assed defense, and ball-hogging. More often than not, the modern half-court offense consists of four teammates getting out of the way so that the fifth guy can put on a one-man show concluding with a 30’ shot or a slam dunk.

In my opinion, what was once a highly competitive sport has become boring entertainment. Players get paid huge dollars to put out minimum effort, and they get paid whether they play or not. Even still, NBA teams draw big crowds (average 18,000 per game) and draw large TV audiences.

It’s kind of like “professional” wrestling, where there’s not much wrestling going on, the opponents set each other up for impressive body slams, folding chairs are used as weapons, and the big stars wear costumes and make up. It’s a theatrical performance, not an athletic event… which is popular in redneck country.

As the saying goes, “The customer is always right!”

The male chauvinist that I suppose I am, I’ve always looked down my nose at women’s professional basketball. The players are smaller than their NBA counterparts, not as athletic, and physically can’t dunk the ball. My impression (gained a couple of decades ago), was that a good high school boys’ team could beat an WNBA team.

That may still be the case. However, I will have to admit that women’s basketball has made great strides in the past decade. There are now some pretty good players in the WNBA, and the women put on a fundamentally better game than their male NBA counterparts. And some of the WNBA stars are very good. For example, in a recent NBA All-Star Game exhibition, a WNBA star (Sabrina Ionescu) competed in a 3-point shooting contest (timed but undefended) with NBA legend Steph Curry and almost beat him.

That was an eye-opener, for sure. Of course, Curry can make 30+’ shots all day long with 6’6” guys hanging all over him. Ionescu is 5’11” tall, so Ionescu would be hard-pressed to get open and score against an NBA defender who would be bigger, stronger, quicker, taller, and have a longer reach.

Most WNBA players can’t make 3-point shots like Ionescu. In fact, of the games that I’ve seen, most of the scoring involves lay-ups or tip-ins when there is a scrum around the basket. Slam dunks are as rare as hen’s teeth: only a dozen in 27 years.

The WNBA has been subsidized by the NBA ever since its beginning in 1997. In other words, the WNBA loses money. However, its revenues have been increasing in recent years. Attendance is rising and sponsorship is, as well. There is hope that this business model will ultimately succeed; after all, online business started off slowly, but is now a worldwide juggernaut.

What will it take to take the WNBA business model to the next level?

Probably more “stars” that fans can get excited about. There aren’t many famous WNBA players, to be honest. The player with the most name recognition is probably Brittney Griner, a 6’9” center who plays for the Phoenix Mercury. She’s a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a six-time WNBA All Star. However, she is most famous for being arrested in Russia on drug charges. This is not the kind of notoriety that the WNBA needs.

Griner is also a lesbian, which turns off a gaggle of potential fans. In fact, about 1/3 of WNBA players are publicly acknowledged LBGTQ. The reality is that, in today’s charged political climate, many people refuse to LBGTQ-friendly businesses. It’s unfair, but it is what it is.

There is some light at the end of the WNBA tunnel, so to speak, with the emergence of a very popular college player named Caitlin Clark. She is the all-time college scoring champ and a two-time Player of the Year. Plus she’s White, which could help attract viewers who object to all the Black players in the WNBA (70 percent).

Caitlin Clark has the potential to become the Tiger Woods of the WNBA, i.e. the “face” of women’s professional basketball. It will be interesting to see how the NBA/WNBA partnership capitalizes on Clark’s notoriety.

The other thing that the WNBA needs to do is to make their game more exciting.

As mentioned earlier, very few female basketball professionals have dunked in the league. The dunk is very popular with rabid basketball fans; video of superstars “posterizing” defenders is included in virtually all NBA highlight shows each evening on TV. Conversely, WNBA action is bereft of such excitement, leaving sportscasters to yawn over the multitude of boring lay-ups, tip-ins, and air-balls.

There has been talk for many years about lowering the height of the basket from 10’ (which is the standard in both the WNBA and NBA) to 9’ or 9’6”. This makes a lot of sense, as WNBA players average 6’ in height compared to the 6’6” of NBA players. Not only are the NBA players taller, but they have a reach that is, on the average, more than 3” longer than their women counterparts. And, to add insult to injury, an NBA player’s average vertical jump is something like 4 inches higher. Putting that together, 6 inches more height, 3 inches more reach, and 4 inches more jumping ability… that’s a 13” advantage for the men.

Dropping the height of the basket by 12 inches would equal the playing field, at least in the matter of dunking.  It’s almost a “no brainer”. And, with this change, women’s professional basketball would become, instantaneously, more entertaining.

Hard to believe but… most WNBA players appear to be solidly against this change, as it would (to them) be admitting that their game is inferior to, or less exciting, than the men’s game.

As the saying goes, “Pride cometh before the fall.”

The same WNBA players who are so adamant about the standard 10’ basket height are also the outspoken players who complain that they are not being paid adequately. The pay disparity between NBA and WNBA players is, admittedly enormous, but so is the revenue gap between the leagues. The WNBA loses money, while the NBA is a gold mine. And thank goodness for that, as this allows the NBA to subsidize the women’s league, keeping these WNBA stars from the unemployment lines.

The WNBA, in order to succeed, needs to become more exciting. People don’t pay to attend (or watch on TV) fundamentally sound high school basketball, which is akin to the WNBA product. I think that adding the potential for women to dunk the basketball would be the “shot in the arm” that the league needs to excite fans and grow the sport. Perhaps the WNBA would create its own Michael Jordan… who was famous for his flamboyant dunks.

More excitement equals more fans and more exposure, resulting in higher ticket sales, more merchandise sales, better TV exposure, and increased corporate sponsorship, thus providing better pay for the WNBA players.

Why not?

Our ex-President, who claims to be a billionaire many times over, is on a roll lately peddling cheap merchandise like red ball caps, perfume, and gaudy sneakers.

His latest grift, targeted on his gullible Bible Belt cult followers, involves a personally-autographed Bible that also contains a raft of political messaging. It is my understanding that these holy books are actually leftover merchandise from a several-years-old sales campaign headed by Lee Greenwood, a country singer most famous for the ”God Bless the U.S.A.” ditty many years back.

These “patriotic” Bibles are being sold for $69.99, of which Trump gets a $10 merchandising fee.

That seems like chickenfeed for a billionaire… if he actually is one. There is some doubt about his alleged fortune, as he has recently been required to put up a couple of court-ordered bonds for cases that he is appealing and… has had difficulty finding any bonding company that will help him out. That is either because Trump isn’t as rich as he claims (i.e. doesn’t really “have $500 million in cash”) or (more likely) that the bulk of his wealth is a property portfolio which is overvalued by him and heavily leveraged by debt.

If he is so rich, why is he selling tennis shoes out of the trunk of his car?

Trump’s latest Bible peddling scam has not escaped the attention of true believers out in the heartland, who have objected to this blatant politicization of God’s word. I think this stunt, while in his mind further ingratiating himself to the Christian right, has actually alienated quite a few Bible-thumping folks. Like many of Donald Trump’s brilliant ideas, this one wasn’t vetted for cost-benefit (he probably thought, “I’ll take all the Alexander Hamiltons I can get!”), and it will be a miracle if this grift doesn’t bite him on the ass politically.

As we all know from our previous experience when Trump was President, the man is basically a salesman who makes all manner of bogus claims to pry money (or votes) from stupid people.

The guy is constantly lying and exaggerating to sell worthless shit, whether it be Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump bottled water, Trump Airlines, the New Jersey Generals football team, Trump ties, the Trump monopoly game, Trump Ice, Trump Vodka, Trump perfume, Trump sneakers, and the half-baked policies of the disgraced Trump Administration. All of these ventures failed, with the latter establishing Mr. Trump as the hands-down worst President of all time.

Which, in the eyes of Republican politicians, qualifies him to be the G.O.P. Presidential candidate in 2024.

Yes, the best conservative candidate in the United States, to run against a sitting President who beat his opponent in 2020 by 8 million votes, is a man who is currently facing some 91 indictments in courts all over the country.

Go figure.

Ironically, this born-again $69.99 Bible huckster is an alleged Christian who: (1) cheated on two former wives and was sleeping with a porn star when his current wife Melania was delivering their son Barron; (2) violates the Commandment re: “bearing false witness” (i.e. lying) every time he opens his mouth; and, (3) NEVER does unto others as he would have them do unto himself.

I am an atheist, and I have more moral fiber than Donald Trump, who has been endorsed by scores of televangelists who claim to regularly speak to God… when they aren’t gypping their congregations by selling them “miracle healing cloths” for $50 a copy.

If there is a God, how about smiting The Donald with a thunderbolt?

Trump recently gained control of the Republican National Committee, the fund-raising vehicle for G.O.P. candidates nationwide. Although he and his daughter-in-law (who is now the vice chair of the RNC) have denied this, it is likely that a good portion of RNC campaign funds will find their way into Trump’s filthy hands.

There is another seven months to go before the 2024 election, thus plenty of time for our ex-Prez Trump to roll out additional cheesy merchandise for sale. I am anticipating Trump-endorsed guns, Nazi/KKK flags, hearing aids, golf clubs, adult diapers for men, and “peek-a-boo” panties for women. How about Trump beer or more $99.oo N.F.T.’s?

In a few more months, Trump may be able to hawk some autographed prison jumpsuits?

Why the billionaire businessman needs money to run a Presidential campaign is a mystery. The guy doesn’t believe in the electoral process. He publicly announced that the 2016 election was “rigged”… before he won, then he complained about the “stolen” election of 2020, going so far as to incite a riot in Washington D.C. to try to overturn the will of the people.

If “the system” is corrupt, and rigged against him, then why is he wasting hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning?

Maybe it’s because running for President gives the scam artist more opportunities to grift? If he loses the election again, he may actually “win” if he can squeeze another couple hundred million dollars out of his cult following.

Donald Trump makes slimy televangelists Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland look like rank amateurs when it comes to fleecing the flock.

Holy mackerel.

Charlie and I flew down to Zihuatanejo, Mexico this past week to celebrate our 50^th wedding anniversary.

We stayed at the posh Thompson/Hyatt Resort on Playa La Ropa, a tropical setting with oodles of palm trees, clear turquoise water, and a white sandy beach populated with chaise lounges under the shade of palapas. Nothing much to do except enjoy the scenery, have Margaritas and snacks, and read.

Muy bien!

Our room at the resort was very spiffy, as large as our first home in Valinda, overlooking a lagoon, and had our own private plunge pool. The bed was mammoth and sat right in the middle of the room, and the furnishings were very modern in style.

Perfecto!

We stayed for four nights. We ate at the HAO restaurant (on property) the first night, enjoying a Mexican barbeque. It was very nice.

On the second night, we went downtown to a very nice bar/restaurant called “Bandidos”. We had some grande Margaritas and I ordered Molcajete for dinner. It is a native dish that I always seek out in Mexican restaurants (but can never find in the States) and it was outstanding.

The next night, for our actual anniversary dinner, we ate at an upscale place called “La Gaviota”, which is located at the south end of Playa La Ropa. We enjoyed a great meal (I had a scrumptious seafood pasta), some Mariachi songs, and a wonderful sunset over the bay.

Magnifico!

As usual, our Mexican hosts were friendly and helpful. Charlie and I have been traveling to Mexico together for fifty years and, without exception, this has always been the case. People who we know who “would never go to Mexico” because of fear of the cartels, criminals, rapists, etc., don’t know what they are missing.

Those doofuses have been watching too much Fox News, I think!

The only bad things about this trip were: (a) the massive logjam on the 91 Freeway (a freeway-blocking accident involving a car and a semi) as we headed toward LAX; (b) the flight back to California on Alaska Airlines which took an extra 45 minutes due to a headwind; (c) a clusterfuck at the Alaska terminal which required us to sit out on the taxiway for 45 minutes before disembarking; and, (d) lots of confusion as to hooking up with our hotel shuttle at the chaotic Bradley terminal.

What a mess that place is! As enormous as LAX has become, and with all of the transportation infrastructure that has been improved there, it is still a nightmare figuring out how to get in and out of there without losing your mind. Too many people and cars. We’ve been to many countries, hence airports, and I think LAX is the worst. By contrast, the Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa airport in Mexico was wonderful: clean, modern, efficient, and friendly.

Run by a bunch of “lazy Mexicans”; who knew!!

We flew First Class on this special trip, and really enjoyed the extra legroom and service. However, we sat behind a large gentleman wearing a Covid mask who let out a horrible-sounding cough about every 60 seconds or so. It sounded like he had Tuberculosis, Ebola fever, or Stage 4 lung cancer, or some nasty communicable disease. We were simultaneously afraid and annoyed, thinking that he’d missed his Medevac flight to Scripps. However, his wife informed Charlie that the poor guy has a bad case of asthma: 100 percent not communicable. That was great news, but we still had to listen to the loud, honking cough for 3-3/4 hours.

Yipes!

Our celebratory getaway to Mexico was made possible by son Tim and wife Shanon, who watched our posse of three Boston Terriers in their Murrieta home for six nights.

It was a circus, I’m sure, but they seemed to have enjoyed the experience. As a matter of fact, Shanon wants some of that energy around her in the future, so she’s getting a Pug puppy in a few months.

On our six-hour drive back to Mesquite from So Cal, Charlie and I reminisced for hours about the circumstances that led to our hookup in 1973 and marriage in 1974.

I was a single guy at the time, while she was a recent divorcee with four young sons, working double shifts at the hospital to make the mortgage payment, and getting zero dollars in alimony or child support from her ex-husband. If it weren’t for my G.I. bill assistance (I was finishing up college at Cal State L.A.) and Food Stamps that Charlie got from the County, we would have never made it.

Most people we’ve met are astonished that a single guy would have taken on a divorcee with four young kids. To be honest, I really never gave it much thought. I could tell that Charlie was a good person with a huge heart. I had dated (after high school when I was a lifeguard/swim instructor, in my college fraternity days, and during my four-year military stint) probably four dozen different gals, some of whom were shopping for a husband. I enjoyed every one of them. However, my priority was finishing up college, not chasing skirts. It just so happened that I ran into Charlie in 1973 when I was working at Queen of the Valley Hospital (as she was), and I was immediately “moonstruck” by her caring and warm, friendly nature.

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

And, so, we began our Great Adventure… which turned out fantastic.

I don’t think our successful marriage by chance. We both came from large, loving families anchored by honorable, hard-working parents. My parents and her parents both enjoyed 50-year marriages. This doesn’t happen by accident, as the marital endeavor is a team sport: mutual support, encouragement, agreement on the important things (finances, child-rearing, career aspirations, problem-solving, etc.), and lots of caring through thick and thin.

My wonderful wife and I have had our emotional ups and downs, financial stress, medical issues (mostly Charlie, who’s had jillions of them!), career hurdles, parenting challenges, and plenty of arguments. Fifty years is a long time to hang with anyone, certainly. However, we have been great TEAMMATES, working together to achieve our goals. And, always FRIENDS.

The two of us are very different people, some might say polar opposites.

Charlie is a people-person who is always looking to help others. She is dyslexic, to a degree, thus a slow learner. However, once she gets up to speed, watch out… because she becomes an expert, is diligent, and works extremely hard at whatever task is at hand. She has been a bookkeeper for decades and her clients love her, as she is available to them 24/7/365. She is, in essence, a business nurse… with a huge heart. She can walk into a room of 200 strangers and, upon leaving, has two-dozen new friends and perhaps a few new clients.

I am an introvert, by nature, and in that same room of 200 strangers one might find me up against a wall, nursing a drink, observing people and behaviors, but not going out of my way to make new friends. I’m not unfriendly; however, I simply don’t need a lot of friends to function. Maybe it’s “guy thing”? Or, maybe it’s just me? Another difference between us is that I’m constantly reading and trying to learn, and that stuff comes easily to me. I can read 100 pages per hour, and I put time in every day scouring scores of news sources to keep up with events and issues. I had a long, productive career in a corporate structure where I enjoyed tackling complex problems, nurturing my subordinates, and achieving goals.

So, how did “oil” and “water” mix so well?

I think we both understood the concepts of love and marriage, and tried as hard as we could to always be friends. We make decisions as a couple; very rarely does one of us do something significant without buy-in from the other.

For example, we both enjoy interior design, and have worked hard to create nice living environments in the several homes that we’ve owned. If, for example, we want to purchase a new rug or painting or couch, we will jointly examine the options until we both say, “That’s it!” What I do is go online to something like Wayfair, check out all of the possibilities, identify some promising candidates, and then sit down with Charlie and go over each one, eliminating the “losers” one by one until we both agree on the “winner”. That’s the way we make sure that each item is exactly what we want… and there are no hard feelings afterwards.

We work collaboratively on all significant decisions. It’s probably a normal behavior for people who are married for a long time, and probably abnormal for couples who struggle and end up divorced.

Anyway, we did it our way and we’re elated with the result. We were serious about marriage, and the commitment that it entails, and we made it work.

As the saying goes, “There is no “I” in team”.

I am reminded of a Panama Canal cruise that we took years ago. We played Bingo every day. On the first day of the cruise, the Bingo host asked the several hundred married folks (pretty much everyone) in the showroom to stand up. Then, he said, “Everyone who has been married less than five years… sit down.” And, a number of the couples did so. He then repeated his message but made the criteria ten years. More couples sat down. This went on for awhile until he eventually arrived at the final couple, who I think had been married something like 75 years!! They got a well-deserved “hooray” from the crowd.

We actually came to know the couple, as they played bingo every day on the 10-day cruise. The guy’s name was Tony Rine (I can’t remember his wife’s name) and the two of them just so happened to be neighbors of my parents in Vista, California. A very nice couple, they were. And, frugal. While everyone else in the game was buying multiple tickets for every game, Tony and his wife would buy one ticket only, and they would jointly mark the numbers on the card as they came up. The odds of them winning were many times 300 to 1, because the other contestants were playing multiple cards.

During that 10-day cruise, the Rines won a Bingo worth several hundred dollars several times, playing the one card. It was amazing. On the final night, when the jackpot Bingo game was worth $12,000, Tony and his bride of 75 years played their usual one Bingo card. We were sitting with them, playing multiple cards, when Tony yelled, “Bingo!” We could hardly believe it.

Now, that’s what I call teamwork!

The New Testament of the Holy Bible is probably the most important piece of literature whose provenance is completely unknown.

No one, not even Christian religious scholars, knows who wrote the Gospels (i.e. the stories of the life, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ) or when, exactly, they were written.

Of course, the lack of witnesses or evidence corroborating alleged divine goings-on is a common denominator of every major religion in world history. The mystery of supposed supernatural things is part of the attraction, I suppose. People like to ponder the unknown and come up with all manner of explanations: it’s the nature of human beings.

This is what keeps the clergy in business.

Believers in fables and myths are simply expected to suspend disbelief and accept such stories as factual. So, even though human beings can’t build ships than can accommodate all living things, part seas, topple stone walls by blowing on a trumpet, walk on water, miraculously restore hearing to a deaf person, raise the dead, or survive a crucifixion, the true believer must accept these tall tales if he wants to “belong to the club” (his church).

Devout religious folks are actually proud of the fact that they BELIEVE in stuff that has no basis in fact. Whereas a non-believer such as myself finds himself constantly asking, like the old burger commercial, “Where’s the beef?”

In other words, where did this Biblical literature come from, who wrote it, when was it written, how was it published and, perhaps the most important question, why was it produced?

These questions, particularly concerning the New Testament of the Bible, have puzzled curious folks for 2,000 years.

Of course, during the first 1,500 years of Christianity, when the Catholic Church possessed enormous power, simply asking such questions could get the inquirer in big trouble. A skeptic could be shunned by the faithful, excommunicated (tossed out of the Church), tortured on the rack, or even burnt at the stake. Book burning (i.e. destroying any religious literature not complimentary to the Gospels) was commonly practiced by Christian zealots under the direction of local bishops.

Thankfully, the power of the Church has been in decline for several hundred years, thus many theologians and historians over the years have been able to contemplate the murky origins of Christianity.

What they all agree on is that the Gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (that is, they were titled that way to infer that Jesus’ disciples or followers wrote them, with the implication that these scribes were four independent witnesses to Jesus’ ministry). Also, it is obvious to scholars and theologians that none of those writers personally witnessed any of the holy pageant in Palestine: all of the Gospels were written long after Jesus Christ allegedly walked the earth.

In addition, since none of the authors personally experienced Jesus (and there were no tape recorders in the 1^st century), we can know for a certainty that none of the supposed verbatim quotes from Jesus came from His lips. Thus, all the red ink in the New Testament (i.e. the supposed actual words of Jesus Christ) are not the “word of God” but, rather, wonderful prose constructed by talented writers in the late 1^st and early 2^nd century.

A question that has always haunted me concerns the “Why?” In other words, why did Jesus (an observant Jew) and his twelve disciples (also Jews) conspire to create an anti-Semitic religion?

Another question is, “How did Christianity emerge under the noses of the Roman Empire?” The Romans had their own pantheon of gods (Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, etc.) which supposedly helped them out from time to time. At the same time, Rome was quite tolerant of the various religions that they encountered in their conquered territories.

So, how was it that the new religion of Christianity was able to grow by leaps and bounds in the 2^nd and early 3^rd centuries, eventually replacing Rome’s own Roman pantheon of gods and becoming the “state religion” of the Empire by the 4^th century?

I just recently read (for the second time!) a book by Joseph Atwill titled Caesar’s Messiah, The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus. This book theorizes how and why Christianity evolved from Judaism with the help of leadership at the Roman court.

Atwill’s book makes more sense than anything I have previously read about the mysterious beginnings of Christianity. It is still considered a fringe conspiracy theory among theologians and historians, but it really connects the dots, in my opinion. So, I will undertake to summarize Atwill’s theory in the following discussion.

Two thousand years ago the Roman Empire encompassed much of the “known world”, including the Middle East. As was the policy within the Empire, conquered peoples were allowed to worship their local gods in their own fashion with the exception that every place of worship also needed to contain a representation of the Roman emperor as an acknowledgement that he was their worldly lord and master. Most conquered peoples acquiesced to this rule. However, the Jews of Palestine absolutely refused to allow a bust of the Emperor to be placed in their places of worship, as their religion forbade such an abomination.

Thus, the Romans were in perpetual conflict with militant Jewish hardliners, which necessitated a strong, expensive military presence in the Middle East to maintain order. By the mid-1^st century, Rome had stomached all it could of the rebellion and mounted a campaign to crush the Jewish zealots once and for all. The “War of the Jews”, as historian (?) Flavius Josephus describes it, culminated in the siege and ultimate destruction of Jerusalem, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the burning and leveling to the ground the Jewish holy Temple in 70 A.D. A few years later, the remaining zealots were trapped on the mountaintop fortress of Masada and were either wiped out by the Roman army or committed mass suicide.

Leadership in Rome was quite annoyed at the massive and expensive military endeavor required to pacify the residents of Palestine. They didn’t want a repeat of this religious guerrilla warfare in the Middle East or any part of their Empire. The Roman goal was, and always had been, to pacify the peoples in lands that they conquered. In most cases, their new subjects acquiesced and they became obedient Roman citizens. This period of peace and prosperity of the Roman Empire is known by historians as the “Pax Romana” (27 B.C. to 180 A.D.).

Unfortunately, zealous Jews in the Middle East and elsewhere refused to cooperate. The problem was like a boil on Rome’s ass; something had to be done.

Atwill theorizes that Christianity was invented at the Roman court by probably a team of writers who worked together to fashion a product that would accomplish two objectives: defang militant Judaism and substitute an alternative monotheistic religion that would be beneficial to the Empire.

A thorough reading of the biblical New Testament reveals two things: the Gospel stories are the origin of anti-Semitism, as we know it today, and there is not one word in any New Testament book that reflects badly on the Roman Empire or its leaders. In fact, Jesus’ ministry highlights pacifistic ideas like “turn the other cheek”, and obedience concepts like “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” (i.e. follow the rules, pay your taxes). Christians are exhorted by Christ to be good citizens, as they will be “rewarded in Heaven”.

This decidedly pro-Roman religion didn’t happen by accident, according to Atwill.

One of the great mysteries about the New Testament stories about Jesus Christ is that no one knows who wrote them. The stories just started magically appearing beginning in the late 1^st century after the Jewish wars against Rome. Christian clergy and theologians have insisted for the past 2,000 years that the Gospels (i.e. the stories about Jesus’ ministry) are factual.

However, no one who lived at that time in Palestine, even the many established religious and historical writers of the day, ever mentioned being in the presence of, or even hearing about, a charismatic, young Jewish rabbi “who was known far and wide”, wandering the region doing miraculous things, speaking to assemblies of thousands, turning water into wine, making a scene down at the Temple on the Mount, being crucified, rising from the dead, addressing 500 people after he was arisen, and… dead people climbing out of their caskets and walking the streets.

As is typically the case with any religion, the supposed divine man left no writings, possessions, or corpse to prove he was ever on Earth. None of the alleged thousands of followers, including his supposed twelve Apostles, erected a sign or monument (like “George Washington slept here”) that believers could venerate. How about “Jesus Christ was born here” or “Jesus ascended to Heaven from this spot!”?

Nope. There is a deafening silence from people actually living in early- to mid-1^st century Palestine. Historians who were present in Palestine at that time and wrote about interesting happenings of the day universally omit any mention of the Jesus Christ character. It is as if he never existed.

According to the Gospels, Jesus was crucified in 33 A.D., four decades before the Jewish revolt against the Romans which culminated at Masada in 73 A.D. The Jewish Wars were prosecuted first by the Roman general Vespasian and, then when he went to Rome to begin the Flavian dynasty of emperors, his son Titus. During the campaign, a Jewish commander named Josephus bar Matthias was captured. He found favor with Vespasian by prophesizing that the Roman commander would ultimately crush the Jews and become Caesar. This is what ultimately happened, although the final military campaign was led by Vespasian’ son Titus after Vespasian returned to Rome and became the emperor.

Josephus, originally a slave to Vespasian, was later freed, became a Roman citizen and a historian who later wrote several books about the Jews, the rebellion, and the Roman military campaign. Working at the royal court, in the capacity of Vespasian’s biographer, he was a trusted member of the Flavian family, eventually changing his name to Flavius Josephus.

Josephus was but one of several aristocratic Jews from the Middle East who essentially “switched sides” and supported the Roman campaign to wipe out the Jewish zealots. Chief among them were Hellenized Jewish aristocrats from Egypt (the Alexanders) and Judea (the Herods). Together with the Romans, they had a common financial interest in preventing any future revolts. Also, there were intricate personal relationships between the Flavians in Rome and these two aristocratic families. Herod’s niece Berenice eventually became the mistress to Titus, Vespasian’s son and heir, thus connecting the Flavians (Vespasian, Titus, and his brother, Domitian), and the Alexanders (the family of Berenice’s first husband) with her family, the Herods.

At the time of Vespasian’s demise in A.D. 79, Titus became Emperor. Trying to solidify the Flavian mark on Rome, he started a campaign to have the Roman Senate confer retroactive “god status” on his father. His efforts ultimately paid off: Vespasian was posthumously declared a Caesar, rewarding the Flavians with a divine provenance. Thus, Titus Flavius, the new emperor, could say that he was, in a way, “the son of a God”.

Maybe not coincidentally, these things happened at the same time as the Gospels were being created by persons unknown. These supposedly biographical stories about Jesus Christ, “the son of God”, began to circulate. At the same time, Flavius Josephus was writing his histories entitled the Antiquities of the Jews and The Wars of the Jews while enjoying the benefits of royal Roman patronage.

Joseph Atwill has done a deep dive into the similarities of Josephus’ “histories” and the Gospels themselves. In many cases, it appears that the sequence of events, and even the prose in the various documents, are strikingly similar. Atwill also compared the Gospel stories with Old Testament prophecies, and it appears that the Gospel writers went to great extremes to make sure that their hero Jesus was fulfilling those prophecies.

Of course, as we know now, those Gospels were written by persons unknown no earlier than 80 A.D. and perhaps as late as 125 A.D. by writers who were very familiar with the Old Testament. The ability of the hero Jesus to ostensibly fulfill prophecy is not so remarkable when one considers that the only evidence that he did so are the Gospel stories themselves, written no earlier than fifty years after His supposed demise… by persons unknown to history.

Nowadays, this type of literature would be called mythical.

If I was writing a fictional biography about myself, I could intersperse within the chapters supposed predictions that I made as a young boy. For example, I could say that, in 1957, I predicted that President Kennedy would be assassinated in 1963. Lo and behold, that prediction came to pass! But, of course, I wrote my fictional biography fifty years after the fact, so I knew when I was crafting the “miracle” prophecy what calamity had already come to pass.

Of course, I’ve used a known historical event as the example of such post- (rather than pre-) diction.

The Gospel stories (which are presumed by the faithful to be true) are replete with dramatic events from 1^st century Judea that no person living at that time in Palestine… other than the unknown Gospel writers… seemed to have witnessed at that time. They have all the characteristics of myths.

Much like the stories about Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Pecos Bill… no one ever met the hero except the author. Can Pecos Bill’s exploits be factual if there were no independent witnesses? Probably not, and that’s why those stories are considered myths.

At any rate, Atwill theorizes that there were some clever writers, Jewish “turncoats” as it were, with extensive knowledge of the ancient Hebrew religion (likely Josephus, the Herods, and the Alexanders) who cooperated with the Flavians in Rome to concoct the Gospel stories. The team of writers was quite knowledgeable about Old Testament prophecy, particularly relating to a “Messiah” who would come to rescue the Jews from their latest oppressors, the Romans.

One of the tell-tale signs of the fact that these Gospel stories are myths is the absence of the identity of the writers: they took pains to be anonymous. Let’s face it: If anyone was to find out that the whole Jesus adventure was concocted at court in Rome, the jig would be up.

But there are clues about the Gospel writers interspersed in the fables like bread crumbs. In many cases those clues involve modified names of characters. One involves the famous Joseph of Arimathea, who the Gospels report took Jesus down from the cross and buried him. Historians say that there was no place called Arimathea in 1st century Palestine. However, there was a writer, working for Emperors Vespasian and Titus in Rome at the time when the Gospels were created, whose name was Josephus bar Matthias. Is it possible that the writer Flavius Josephus, with tongue-in-cheek, couldn’t resist including himself in the gallows humor? Director Alfred Hitchcock famously used to do this in his movies.

Another telling fact about the production of New Testament literature is that, in the 1^st century, only wealthy aristocrats or the government itself could afford the high cost of producing written materials. The common citizen followers of a Jewish rabbi who wandered the countryside would likely not have been wealthy journalists.

Atwill’s thesis is that the Gospel stories were meant to (a) crush the militaristic Jewish religion, (b) create an alternative religion that was pacifistic, and (d) put Roman leaders in a positive light, particularly the Flavian dynasty. The overriding goal was that Jews throughout the Empire would acknowledge Caesar as a god and be obedient to him.

I won’t go into the minute details of Atwill’s analysis of the Gospels, but as he explains ad nauseum, they were meant by the unknown authors to satirize and lampoon Judaism and its zealous leaders while at the same time creating a new religion without the burdensome Hebraic requirements (circumcision, no eating flesh of cloven hooved animals, purity standards, etc.) and restrictions (check out Leviticus in the Old Testament!).

In order to entice new converts to the religion (particularly Jews), the new “god” figure, i.e. Jesus Christ, was portrayed as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy such that he would appear to be the long-awaited Messiah.

Yes, the writers used the antiquity and provenance of Judaism… against itself in kind of a cruel joke.

In fact, according to Atwill, Jesus’ alleged ministry in Palestine is a choreographed match to Vespasian’ and Titus’ military campaigns which ultimately resulted in the total destruction of Jerusalem and its holy Temple and the hilltop fortress of Masada. This Jewish catastrophe, which was foretold in the Gospels by the Jesus character (supposedly the Son of God) was actually accomplished by Titus (the “son of a god”). The goal of the whole literary charade was for religious citizens of the Roman Empire to accept Caesar as a god figure, be obedient, and reject the militarism of the Judaism that had caused so much grief.

Question: Who had the resources in the 1^st and 2^nd century to produce the Gospels and disseminate them throughout the “known world”? Answer: The Roman emperors and their scribes.

Although not covered by Atwill’s book, this reality also explains the provenance of the rest of the books of the New Testament, many of which were allegedly written by the self-appointed “Apostle Paul”.

This mysterious Saul/Paul fellow, not mentioned in the Gospel fables or any historical accounts of actual 1st century events, seemingly wandered the Empire preaching a “Christian” religion. The Apostle admittedly (in his writings) never met Jesus Christ in the flesh, only in a vision, but that was apparently enough to set him on a course to provide an alternative theology to Judaism. (Supposedly, Paul was an ex-Jewish priest, and citizen of the Roman Empire, providing him with the bonafides to steer his listeners away from Judaism and toward a better religious product.)

This is, not surprisingly, exactly what the Roman leaders desired.

One interesting thing about Paul the Wandering Salesman is that he had no apparent job to earn income. Supposedly, Paul spent his hours coaching up the new Christians and writing letters (epistles) to the various emerging churches, setting them straight on matters of theology and behavior. Some of Paul’s writings are quite lengthy, hence the would have been prohibitively expensive to produce.

“How did this guy with no means of support afford to publish these writings?”, you might ask. My guess is that Paul (or whoever really wrote Paul’s New Testament contributions) was on Caesar’s payroll.

Even though “Apostle Paul” supposedly wandered far and wide, spoke to thousands, experienced all manner of adventures (including being killed but… surviving!), and allegedly helped to establish churches in many big cities within the Empire, he is another Biblical persona who is absolutely unknown to legitimate historians researching people and places of the 1^st century.

Just like Jesus, his disciples, and the faceless writers of the various books of the New Testament, who took pains to hide their identities.

Rhetorical question: If it had become known that the entire New Testament was an elaborate literary scam concocted at the royal court in Rome, do you think the public would have “bought” the new Christian religious product?

I think the answer is obvious.

In conclusion, I have no idea if Joseph Atwill’s theory is 100 percent correct, but it is the best explanation that I have ever heard. It makes sense when you carefully examine Atwill’s painstakingly researched arguments.

As Carl Sagan famously said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. There is zero evidence to back up any of the New Testament fables nor does anyone know for sure who wrote them.

In this case, the “Why?” they were written, per Atwill, makes a lot more sense than the idea that the God of Abraham, in a fit of exasperation over 1^st century Judaism, came up with a new, improved religious product for His earthly audience.

We recently enjoyed the company of two grandchildren, Jessica and Craig, when they came north from Southern California to participate in the Zion Half Marathon.

We LOVE those kids.

Jessica is a Registered Nurse at a hospital in San Diego County, and Craig is going to college and working full-time, hoping to get a degree in Psychology. They are both intelligent and articulate, they are hard workers, and they are super nice “kids”.

The whole package.

And, they have a brother “Josh”, a winner as well, who recently got engaged to his squeeze “Andie”. Both of them have good paying jobs (he’s a manager in a large medical lab and she works in law enforcement) and have been together for several years.

Granddaughter Jessica just recently got engaged and is going to marry her live-in boyfriend “Abe” in October when we are scheduled to be RV vacationing in Oceanside. Jess and Abe live nearby. Abe is a heavy equipment operator, specializing in those huge cranes that erect skyscrapers and such. He makes good money and is a fine man, to boot. He and Jessica share joint custody of his twin kids (boy and girl) with his former wife, and it seems to be an amicable relationship.

Grandson Craig has toyed with the idea of joining the Air Force or Navy. However, he is busy now with work and school (where he is getting good grades), and he’s getting older (I think he is 21 now). At some point, the military isn’t interested in prospects that “old” (as their training is geared toward 18-year-old, unworldly, pimply-faced kids who can be molded into obedient soldiers)… unless the recruit has a college degree. Craig might be one of the latter in a few years.

I drove Jess and Craig to and from the 13-mile race on Saturday. They are both ample specimens (not slender) who were doing the race for the achievement of finishing… which they did! They both said, after the race, that the “killer” was the several mile uphill portion just after the 6-mile mark… something that caught them off-guard. However, they gritted their teeth and gutted out the race. I think they finished, together, in about 2-1/2 hours.

Better than I could do!

Speaking of visitors to our Mesquite home, we are anticipating welcoming my sister Kellie and sister-in-law Kay on April 30 for a few days. Neither has seen our property, and the two of them want to do a quickee tour of Zion National Park, as well. I’m sure I can arrange that.

Also, I believe that our son Jon and his wife Misty are planning to visit us in May, coming all the way from Lexington, Kentucky. We can hardly wait!

Maybe I’ll take them up to Zion, too; everyone loves that place.

Charlie and I are still working on our diets, trying to slim down before we hit the beach in Zihuatanejo, Mexico in a few weeks. It is our reward (to ourselves!) for 50 years of marriage.

So far, Charlie has lost 22 pounds since December, and I’ve lost 17. We’re quite proud of ourselves.

As I mentioned previously, we will become “visitors” in the Fall when we spend a month in Oceanside, California and spend some time with our old Southern California friends and relatives.

Visiting is fun!

It is hard for anyone to predict what the world will look like in ten or twenty years.

That is because everyone’s imagination is a product of their intellect, education, life experience, and beliefs. Those components tend to skew the imagination backward, a bit, toward the comfortable “known”.

If you had told a guy in the 1950’s, for example, that by the year 2000 there would be no more telephone booths or carbon paper, or that virtually everyone would be carrying around a high quality camera in their pocket, he would have laughed at you. Ditto if you’d have told him that he would be paying to watch TV in his own home.

Hee, hee, hee… that’s a good one, he’d laugh!

I certainly don’t know what’s coming down the road. Some things are somewhat predictable, like more people working remotely, more jobs being lost to “artificial intelligence”, most higher education being acquired on-line, and, at some point, transportation being weaned off of petroleum products. It appears that global temperatures are warming, too, so we can expect more unsettling weather, disasters, and rising sea levels. Low-lying cities, like New York and Miami, are in for a rude awakening.

Trends indicate that citizens of industrialized countries are becoming less religious and more people are living together absent marriage. Couples are having fewer children, too. Maybe that’s a good thing, as the planet can only support so many hungry mouths.

Our democratic system of government is broken and in need of a general overhaul. Because of zealous partisanship, a comprehensive “fix” of our Constitution is probably not going to happen any time soon. So, where does that leave us?

My Dad, a Barry Goldwater conservative back in the day, used to say that the best form of government would be a “benevolent dictatorship”. That is probably true, but this earth has yet to produce even one of those unicorns. Because “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, sooner or later the benevolence wanes and the self-serving accelerates.

That’s just the nature of things.

We “Baby Boomers” have experienced democracy at its finest, back when politicians of different stripes could work together to get things done. It wasn’t perfect, but it was “adjustable” considering that we voters could kick to the curb idiot elected officials who got too big for their britches or tried to foist stupid ideas upon their constituents.

Nowadays, those kinds of losers fill most of the seats in State and Federal legislatures, spending their time feeding from the government trough while shooting spitwads at each other. Many of those incumbents are Baby Boomers; go figure.

I can understand why a lot of Americans are sick and tired of the democracy that we’ve allowed to putrify: it isn’t working very well.

There seems to be a groundswell of sorts aimed at taking dramatic action, politically. The Republican Party, under the leadership of disgraced former President Donald Trump, seems to be in the mood for draconian solutions in many policy areas. If Mr. Trump is elected President in November, there will be a very different look to government in the United States.

Maybe that’s what is needed: an Ice Bucket challenge, so to speak.

My fear, should this occur, is that the authoritarian model that Trump promotes would feature an Administration populated not by the “best and brightest” but, rather, a mob of hard-line loyalists to Trump who would attempt to force unpopular ideologies on the majority of our citizens. Civil strife, much like occurred in apartheid South Africa, would be likely… in my opinion.

The problem with giving authoritarianism a shot in America is that, historically, dictators tend to get more frisky as time goes on, and the people’s “rights” tend to diminish, as well. Freedoms that we and our forefathers have enjoyed and taken for granted, like speech, assembly, petition, and even gun rights could be eliminated.

This is what happens in dictatorships: the last thing a dictator wants is someone loudly ridiculing him with a bullhorn in a public space, for example. Aggressive retribution is common, often by goon squads with truncheons and automatic weapons. People get “disappeared”. (Interestingly, such anonymous “enforcers” were deployed, illegally, by President Trump during the BLM protests. People who were committing no crimes were roughed up and some were kidnapped and hauled off in unmarked vans. One youth brought his AR-15 from another state, waded into the BLM protest, and shot a couple of demonstrators. He was treated like a hero and celebrity by Trump’s people.)

Authoritarian leaders tend to want to cling to power. They do this by rigging elections in their favor or… doing away with them altogether. This is how Vladimir Putin stays in power, and how the North Korean dictatorship has been perpetuated over many generations. Since 1948, North Korea has been ruled by Kim Il Sung, then his son Kim Jong Il, and then his son Kim Jong Un, who is currently prepping his daughter Kim Yo Jung to take over from him upon his demise.

Can anyone imagine the idiot Donald Trump Jr. being handed the reins when his father gets bored or dies? No way, you say, but daddy Trump already controls the Republican National Committee. If elections continue to be held in America, the how and who on the ballot would be determined by the authoritarian President and his posse.

No way, you say!

Consider the fact that today, in “Trump Country”, hard-line Republican legislators continue to devise ways to limit the voting power of Democrats, particularly those who are minorities like Blacks and Latinos.

I predict that, if Trump’s cult succeeds in November, we could be looking at a new age of “Jim Crow”-type repression of minorities in America, targeting African-Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, and perhaps others. State-supported “foreigner” bashing could become a national pastime, much like Jews were targeted in Nazi Germany. Liberals  Democrats, educators, LBGQT individuals, and journalists would be hounded by goons, both civilian and governmental.

Another thing that will happen with a regime change that substitutes authoritarianism for democracy is that power dynamics within the population will change. Currently, the voting power of our “mature” population (i.e. senior citizens) is strong and is a prime reason that the Nation has its Social Security and Medicare safety net. Those programs are expensive, but elected politicians are loathe to reduce those costs because seniors show up to vote in droves. An authoritarian leader need not concern himself with the anger of voters, particularly if he controls the electoral process. He could decide to limit who votes or if there are elections at all.

He could decide that Social Security and Medicare need to be eliminated because… America has too many old people! He could, essentially, “thin the herd”.

Who needs old people, anyway? (Except Trump, who will be 78-years-old when/if he takes office.)

This all seems far-fetched to us, as we have a 250-year history of elections in this country. There is no way that we could lose the right to kick a lousy leader to the curb, right?

The answer is “Yes”.

With our collective track record over the past 50 years, it is safe to say that the electorate has done a crappy job placing competent people in positions of authority. I’m ashamed. Aren’t you?

Something to consider: an authoritarian leader, able to do pretty much whatever he wants without fear of losing elections (since they don’t need to be held), doesn’t need a legislative branch to enact laws: he can do that himself. So, a Legislative branch of government isn’t necessary, nor is a Judicial branch needed to interpret the laws. I wonder if the two hundred plus Republican Congressmen and 48 Republican Senators and the Republican majority of the Supreme Court have given this any thought?

Maybe we have collectively earned our fate; i.e. losing the rights that we have misused. Perhaps a “strong man” like Trump is needed to tell us when to jump and how high?

I will probably go to my grave believing in the idea of democracy, even though its execution in America has been a train wreck in recent decades. Call me a dinosaur, if you want, but I will always feel that problems can be solved by people who listen to each other and make an honest effort to find compromise.

The good thing about a dictatorship is that the mention of problems is not allowed, so there are theoretically no problems to solve.

If the Boss says that everything is hunky-dory, then… it is, just like in the last Trump Administration.

Does anyone remember the President assuring everyone that Covid-19 was “just the flu”, “there are only five cases nationwide”, and that the whole thing was just “overblown” drama hyped up by the “Liberal media”?

One million deaths later…

It is difficult to read a newspaper or visit a news website these days without several “breaking news” stories about ex-President Trump.

Most of the stories are about his myriad legal problems, his brutal takeover of the Republican Party, and his campaign for the G.O.P. nomination for the 2024 Presidential election. Trump and his army of attorneys are working overtime to delay his many court cases until after November, with the idea that he will, if elected, be immune to any civil or criminal convictions. While this stalling game is in process, he and his stalwart crew of zealots are busy bullying Republican officials nationwide to fall in line with his authoritarian ideas. At the same time, he is running a “campaign”, if one could call it that, wherein he holds press conferences and poorly attended rallies where he is able to spout lies, hate and silliness on his M.A.G.A. cult followers.

The ex-Prez, who once said to his followers that they would have to get used to “so much winning”, has lost virtually every court case that he’s been involved in for the past three years or so, currently is facing something like 90 indictments nationwide, and has been fined something like $450 million thus far for his transgressions. No criminal convictions yet, but Trump will be facing potential jail time in the upcoming classified documents case, the January 6^th Riot debacle, and the Georgia election extortion case.

The poor rich guy can’t seem to catch a break, and he is burning through his cash at a prodigious rate. His daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who he has tabbed to be the co-chair of the Republican National Party, publicly stated that “every cent” generated from G.O.P. donors to the RNC should go to Donald Trump… because the billionaire needs money to fight off the witch hunters. That is bad news to the other Republican candidates for the House, the Senate, and Governorships nationwide.

Accordingly, contributions are pouring into Trump’s several PAC’s from the same blue-collar doofuses who fell for the “Trump’s Wall” and “Stop the Steal” grifts, gifting the disgraced President filthy lucre to the tune of around $250 million. Some of these folks are undoubtedly the same zealots who send their hard-earned cash to televangelists who have promised prayers to heal their cancers, dispense “miracle healing cloths”, weekly rail against sinners like Democrats, homosexuals, scientists and teachers, and publicly state that Donald Trump was sent by God to solve America’s problems.

This is a guy who has violated his wedding vows repeatedly, is a racist and a cheat, and has been convicted of raping a woman and then lying about it, repeatedly. The Almighty couldn’t have chosen a better representative on earth; the “Prince of Peace” must be so proud.

“A sucker is born every minute!” according to the famous con man P.T. Barnum. This is true, and Mr. Trump has cornered the market on our most gullible and stupid citizens.

Donald Trump is bad at a lot of things (like telling the truth, understanding how government works, having empathy for the non-1 percenters in society, etc.), but he is adept at separating people from their money. He has a gift, to be sure; in fact, he may go down as the greatest scam artist that the world has ever known. Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff have nothing on the guy.

Amid this crazy year, with hundreds of attorneys working feverishly at ungodly rates per hour and punitive judgments against Trump ballooning into the hundreds of millions of dollars, “P.T.” Trump has trotted out two more products that are sure to be irresistible to his M.A.G.A. cult:

          Trump signature sneakers, at between $200 and $400 a pair

          Trump signature perfume, at $54 a bottle

These items are, of course, the latest Trump signature products released in recent years, following the Trump M.A.G.A. ball caps, Trump bobbleheads, and the Trump NFT trading cards.

The Grifter-in-Chief has also gotten involved in social media with his Truth Social network, something he ginned up when he got banned from Twitter for repeated bad behavior. Trump is currently in the process of selling this money losing enterprise to some investment group (probably Big Oil/Saudi money) for $4 billion.

Does the phrase “pay to play” seem applicable here? If Trump were re-elected, do you think these savvy investors would have any sway in the White House? How about when the next Supreme Court vacancy pops up? Another Clarence Thomas on the bench, perhaps.

I wonder what the next grift product will be. Trump has already produced a variety of “signature” products that failed miserably, like ties, airlines, pro football teams, casinos, steaks, bottled water, a Monopoly game rip-off, a university, vodka, a mortgage provider, and… a Presidency. (In a recent poll of 54 Presidential historians, something that is done every several years, Donald Trump was voted the worst President of all time.)

How about Trump signature dentures, condoms, wigs, brass knuckles, autographed Bibles, chewing tobacco, man diapers, or crotchless panties (for women who like to get groped)? The possibilities are endless, and I’m sure Trump has people looking into every conceivable option.

This guy will be shilling useless shit until the day he dies.

Luckily for him, there are a lot of suckers out there.